Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-09-03
FARMERS INSTITUTE.
TER INITIATIVE Kovs IN cARoLIsE
COUNTY, vIRGIkIA.
weIl.Timed Remarks 81 Colonel John
waship gton and othsrs-Ho 70
liticai Organization.

,corroepondepce OF the Richmond Dispatcf-l
BowIrNo GREEN, VA, Sept. i, 1887.
The Farmers Institute OF this county
was held here to-day--Colonel John
Washington in the chair. The attend.
auce was much smaller than expected
on account of the press OF work on the
farmers just at this time. MIR: Percy
Eowe was chosen secretary, and WORK
nj once commenced. Colonel Wash
ington in opening the meeting said /:
at gives me pleasure to call to order
tits the first institute OF virginia and
to welcome you farmers OF Caroline to
this gathering. ] am not man to be
discouraged by circumstances, for sue
cess rests with the man and not with
the circumstances" After some APP
propriate remarks about the farmer and
his way to success, he begged the
pardon of the institute for reference
10 matter in which some present
might not agree with him-namely, to
converting the farmers organization to
an organization for political purposes.
Advocates tell us that we must send
farmers to the legislative halls, and at
the same time they denounce class legis-
lation and monopolies. "Ofa all classes
the farmers should be the most con-
scryative." Along with this same adj
vice they tell us that the farmers are in
a worse condition now than ever before,
and they know that to send farmers
alone to the legislativeslalls will make
all other industries antagonistic to
them. They propose that the farmers
should antaVonize every other industry
of the land when they themselves are
the poorest. The result would be that
we should be swept away and get no.
thing" be held that there was no need
for antagonism, except against the
common carrier and manufacturer
of fertilizer that they all are friends
10 the farmer, and there Is unity and
community of interest; that any bill to
help the farmer would find an active
and ready friend in the merchant, as
exemplifed in the Interstate COM
merce bill, for the interests OF the mer-
chant and the farmer as against the car
rler are one, and the same is true with all
manufacturers. Go before the Legis-
latuie with your bill prepared, and
others will come to your aid. Let
them see that you are organized and
your power will be felt, and what is
right and proper will be given to you.
Without organization you are nothing.
Let your bill be endorsed by the presi-
dent and secretary of your farmers
organization, and it will go through
without trouble. But if you endeayor
to send none but farmers to the legis-
lative halls, you will make all other in-
dustries your enemies.
AT the Interstate Farmers Con-
vention III Atlanta a resolution was Of
fered that the convention be in favor vi
modifying the present tariff, and this
It solution was voted down by two votes
TO one. The members of that conven-
ton said I'VE want no politics in n
tanners convention Gentlemen, these
ale ny views. When you bring into it
politics you bring in discord and dis
St ntion. There is degree of candor,
uuihiulness. and integrity found among
tie tiliers OF the soil that is but rarely
found elsewhere. Then ask them not to
stop down to become soiled in the po-
litical arena. As citizens they have
enough to DO with politics. Let them
not bring it into this organization.
These ale my views.
Dr. Quesenbury then called. upon
Mr.. J. J.. Corbln, president OF the
Executive Committee Of the Farmers
Convention.
Mr.. W. T. Chandler thought that
Mr.. Corbin had prepared some remarks
upon particular subject, and therefore
Le would rather wait until that subject
should come up that the present hour
could be spent more proiitably IN try
iug To devise some means of awakIng
the interest Of the farmers IN this work.
he heartily concurred in the views ex-
picssed by the president. 1t was a
cly ing shame that such discrimination
should be made between local and
through freight. Tie boats on the
hapuahanDock would carry a passen-
ger nom Fredericksburg TO the mouth
Of the river, distance Of one hundred
and twenty-five miles, for Sl.25 AID
changed the same passenger 30 cents 10
20 from one wharf 10 the next. dis
rance Of ii G miles. The farmers had
a Iielt 10 complain did not think Il
farmer would be more successful in
correcting this than a lawyer would,
granting that they were both honest
mon; that the farmers wanted honest
men, WHO would act on principle and
stand by that principle.
Judge J. \. Welsh took the floor
next. Though requested by the presi-
dent to give talk on fencing, he said
that he had prepared no speech that
fencing should be his text, but that
he was like Dean Swift's preacher, who
had q text that would fit any sermon
and a sermon that would fit any text.
There was no telling what he would
touch on before he finished" The
Judge then in his humorous style pro-
csedcd TO give an interesting and iu-
structive talk, touching on many sub
| i cts of interest to all farmers. He SAID
that he was now over sixty years old,
and since his earliest remembrance he
had heard the one continuous cry Of
hard times. low pr1ces, and crop fail
ur.s; that he was reading Horace the
other day in the English translation,
and found there that sixty-tnree years
before Christ the same state of affairs
eXisted-failiDg crops, low prices,
and 10 GALE for land-and it now
devolved upon the farmers to
make some change in this; that one
way of its promotion was by cultivating
smaller farms and having these fenced
in. The farmer without fencing was
like the merchant without goods. A
farm of $50 or 200 acres fenced in is
more valuable than one OF 1000 OF
l,500acrt without fencing. He sought
TO impress the fact that the best legacy
that they can possibly leave to their
children is two or three hundred acres
OF land, and that fenced in. All other
investments were uncertain, but that
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